Gaming Together Everywhere
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Adobe Gaming Success Story Creeo Studio Gaming together everywhere Creeo Studio embraces new business opportunities using Adobe® Gaming technologies to deliver high-intensity, multiuser games across platforms and devices Creeo Studio Digital agencies like Creeo Studio are much more than just creative web and print Lecco, Italy http://multi.creeostudio.it shops. Increasingly, they are leveraging existing skill sets and expertise with Adobe technology to embrace the mobile app development market. With digital media Results remaining at the center of the company’s focus, it was a natural progression for • Ported web-based game to mobile Creeo Studio to go beyond traditional communication design and development into in three months casual gaming. • Tripled application performance • Accelerated time to market reusing existing code and sparing months Creeo recently introduced a mobile version of its original web-based game Old School Race, a of retraining high-intensity driving competition for single and multiplayer enjoyment available for iOS, Android™, • Became #1 free game in Italy’s and BlackBerry®. From the outset, the 11-person staff at Creeo Studio envisioned a modern take on iTunes store the slot-racing games of their youth, updated with compelling graphics and a host of powerful capabilities • Ranked in top five in European at the user’s fingertips. When the group set out to evaluate the ideal game development environment, online gaming stores they chose Adobe Gaming technologies to deliver richly textured animation, high performance, and compelling experiences with cross-platform compatibility. Originally, Creeo released Old School Race for Windows® Live Messenger, which could only be viewed at 500x500 pixels. The team wanted to bring a higher fidelity version to the mobile marketplace to reach a wider, global audience on tablets and smartphones. “We had ten years of experience using Adobe development technologies, and we naturally wanted to use the trusted and integrated design, development, and deployment environment to create rich experiences for mobile gaming,” says Andrea Pontiggia, CTO, Creeo. Old School Race, available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices, was created using Adobe Gaming technologies to deliver richly textured animation, high performance, and compelling experiences with cross-platform compatibility. Challenge The technical team conducted an intensive evaluation of mobile gaming platforms, seeking a proven • Leverage existing skill sets to expand solution that would help them bring Old School Race to market quickly and easily. They considered agency offerings from traditional web developing natively for iOS, but found it limiting, and its steep learning curve would put them behind and print marketing communications to mobile game development the competition. On Android, there were efficiency issues surrounding its language, which is similar • Keep development costs in check to Java™. So with extensive knowledge of Adobe Flash® Professional and its native language ActionScript® • Encourage social interaction through already in place, the choice was clear. visually rich, high-performance “The first time we exported Old School Race to Adobe Flash, it worked effortlessly,” says Stefano Magni, casual gaming across devices and technical director, Creeo. “There were no compatibility issues with the original Windows project.” For platforms Creeo, Flash Professional is a simple, yet powerful, integrated environment that enables the company’s Solution team to laser focus on game design itself, rather than struggle with technology obstacles. Creeo found • Leverage Adobe Flash Professional that Adobe AIR® provided the most powerful mobile delivery mechanism in the industry that delivers for ease of use in creating compelling multiplayer gaming experiences the highest-performance experiences. There was no need to spend valuable time learning multiple • Use Adobe AIR for delivery of new coding languages. multiplatform native apps Enabling immersive experiences Systems at a glance Creeo Studio was keen to capture the tablet market first, because the screen size is ideal for game play. Adobe Gaming Technologies. The design team set about taking hand-drawn images of sleek sports cars and racing tracks, and Components used include: brought them into Adobe Photoshop® Extended software for editing. They easily imported animations • Adobe Flash Professional and graphic assets using Flash Professional, simulating touch movements that a user might employ • Adobe AIR with a handheld device. Adobe Creative Suite® Master Collection. Components used Adobe AIR gave Creeo developers a host of features with which to enhance the game—including richer include: interactions, extensions, and performance improvements—while greatly reducing optimization time. • Adobe Photoshop Extended “An essential feature for us with Adobe AIR is that we will have the framework in place to develop platform-specific, native extensions,” says Magni. In just three short months, Old School Race was launched for iPad and Android. Up to four users can play at the same time on a single device, each choosing a car based on its unique capabilities. Players can challenge themselves and each other to top their best scores while a hard-charging rock soundtrack accompanies the game play. As a car goes around an increasingly complex set of tracks, a simple tap of the screen will boost or decrease the car’s power. Racking up an incremental number of points unlocks new tracks, which leaves players motivated to outperform themselves. “By enabling the Adobe AIR SDK in Flash Professional, we had the right tools to build a fast, professional application the first time out,” says Magni. Creeo choose Adobe Flash gaming technologies as the building blocks for its second title, Iuppla, a casual game for children. Iuppla will be the company’s first fully multidevice application built from scratch, slated to run on smartphones, tablets, the web, and Smart TVs. “Our agency is firmly aligned with Adobe Gaming technologies, which position us to strategically and effectively dive deeper into the burgeoning medium of mobile apps.” Andrea Pontiggia CTO, Creeo Studio Since its launch at the Apple iTunes store, the free release of Old School Race has racked up more than 130,000 downloads, along with thousands more at the Android store. Adobe gaming provides the Creeo team with tools to deliver unparalleled mobile game performance with lack of latency. By removing masks, turning MovieClips into images, and optimizing and recycling assets, performance of the app tripled. Since upgrading to the latest release of Adobe AIR, performance has nearly tripled, and is expected to increase another 50% as enhancements to Old School Race are rolled out. Easy cross-platform deployment Exporting the game to the mobile platform was easy, which allowed the same code base of Old School Race to be deployed for BlackBerry and iPhone; plans are also in the works to introduce the game on the Amazon Appstore. As the game has gone viral and the number of fans continues to grow exponentially worldwide, this high-impact racing game has held the number one rank on iTunes Italy for free iPad games, and has repeatedly placed in the top five throughout European app stores. In the coming months, the agency will again rely on Adobe Flash gaming technologies as the building blocks for its second title, Iuppla, a casual game for children that combines music with animated animal characters. Iuppla will be the company’s first fully multidevice application built from scratch, slated to run on smartphones, tablets, the web (including on Facebook), and Smart TVs. “The future of casual gaming is on television. With Adobe Gaming technologies, we are ready to conquer that market,” says Pontiggia. He adds that his agency is looking forward to deploying on Adobe AIR 3.2, which leverages Adobe Stage3D API for console-quality 2D and 3D games. “Our agency is firmly aligned with Adobe Gaming technologies, which position us to strategically and effectively dive deeper into the burgeoning medium of mobile apps,” says Pontiggia. For more information www.adobe.com/go/gaming © 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Adobe, the Adobe logo, ActionScript, Adobe AIR, AIR, Flash,and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in Adobe Systems Incorporated the United States and/or other countries. Android is a registered trademark of Google Inc. The Trademark BlackBerry is owned by Research In Motion Limited and is registered in the United States and may be pending or registered in other countries. Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Oracle and/or its 345 Park Avenue affiliates. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks San Jose, CA 95110-2704 are the property of their respective owners. USA www.adobe.com 91073319 7/12.